Handling goats

• Goats are a vastly greater challenge to handle than sheep.
• The first thing you’ll need to do is to heighten the yards to prevent jumping.
• The sides of races must be close-boarded so they can’t see through and think about baulking or jumping out.
• Drafting horned bucks can be problems as they won’t be able to get along races in yards. They soon learn to go sideways but it’s a good idea to dehorn them, though the horns are often handy to handle them.
• Goats vocalise (bleat or scream) when held and this can add a lot of stress to jobs like shearing and castrating kids.
• Goats are highly suspicious of new facilities so running them through yards before handling them is useful.
• hey have a good memory and know all the escape spots so be vigilant.
• They will face up to dogs and attack much more than sheep will ever do.
• When they get too fearful, they’ll lie down and sulk, and you can have a smother or injuries as they pile on top of each other with sharp hooves.
• In the grazing area, you cannot farm goats without electric fences.